Bukowski, Charles 1920-1994

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Bukowski, Charles 1920-1994

PERSONAL:

Born August 16, 1920, in Andernach, Germany; died of leukemia, March 9, 1994, in San Pedro, CA; brought to the United States, 1922; married Barbara Fry, October, 1955 (divorced); married Linda Lee Beighle (a health-food proprietor); children (with Frances Smith): Marina Louise. Education: Attended Los Angeles City College, 1939-41. Hobbies and other interests: Playing the horses, symphony music.

CAREER:

Writer and poet. Worked as an unskilled laborer, beginning 1941, in various positions, including dishwasher, truck driver and loader, mail carrier, guard, gas station attendant, stock boy, warehouse worker, shipping clerk, post office clerk, parking lot attendant, Red Cross orderly, and elevator operator; also worked in dog biscuit factory, slaughterhouse, cake and cookie factory, and hung posters in New York subways. Former editor of Harlequin and Laugh Literary and Man the Humping Guns; columnist ("Notes of a Dirty Old Man"), Open City and L.A. Free Press.

AWARDS, HONORS:

National Endowment for the Arts grant, 1974; Loujon Press Award; Silver Reel Award, San Francisco Festival of the Arts, for documentary film.

WRITINGS:

POETRY

Flower, Fist, and Bestial Wail, Hearse Press, 1959.

Longshot Poems for Broke Players, 7 Poets Press, 1961.

Run with the Hunted, Midwest Poetry Chapbooks, 1962.

Poems and Drawings, EPOS, 1962.

It Catches My Heart in Its Hands: New and Selected Poems, 1955-1963, Loujon Press (New Orleans, LA), 1963.

Grip the Walls, Wormwood Review Press, 1964.

Cold Dogs in the Courtyard, Literary Times, 1965.

Crucifix in a Deathhand: New Poems, 1963-1965, Loujon Press (New Orleans, LA), 1965.

The Genius of the Crowd, 7 Flowers Press, 1966.

True Story, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1966.

On Going out to Get the Mail, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1966.

To Kiss the Worms Goodnight, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1966.

The Girls, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1966.

The Flower Lover, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1966.

Night's Work, Wormwood Review Press, 1966.

2 by Bukowski, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1967.

The Curtains Are Waving, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1967.

At Terror Street and Agony Way, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1968.

Poems Written before Jumping out of an 8-Story Window, Litmus (Salt Lake City, UT), 1968.

If We Take …, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1969.

The Days Run away like Wild Horses over the Hills, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1969, reprinted, 1993.

Another Academy, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1970.

Fire Station, Capricorn Press (Santa Barbara, CA), 1970.

Mockingbird, Wish Me Luck, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1972.

Me and Your Sometimes Love Poems, Kisskill Press (Los Angeles, CA), 1972.

While the Music Played, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1973.

Love Poems to Marina, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1973.

Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame: Selected Poems, 1955-1973, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1974.

Chilled Green, Alternative Press, 1975.

Africa, Paris, Greece, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1975.

Weather Report, Pomegranate Press, 1975.

Winter, No Mountain, 1975.

Tough Company, bound with The Last Poem by Diane Wakoski, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1975.

Scarlet, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1976.

Maybe Tomorrow, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1977.

Love Is a Dog from Hell: Poems, 1974-1977, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1977.

Legs, Hips, and Behind, Wormwood Review Press, 1979.

Play the Piano Drunk like a Percussion Instrument until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1979.

A Love Poem, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1979.

Dangling in the Tournefortia, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1981.

The Last Generation, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1982.

Sparks, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1983.

War All the Time: Poems 1981-1984, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1984.

The Roominghouse Madrigals: Early Selected Poems, 1946-1966, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1988.

Beauti-ful and Other Long Poems, Wormwood Books and Magazines, 1988.

People Poems: 1982-1991, Wormwood Books and Magazines, 1991.

The Last Night of the Earth Poems, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1992.

(With Kenneth Price), Heat Wave, Black Sparrow Graphic Arts (Santa Rosa, CA), 1995.

Bone Palace Ballet: New Poems, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1997.

The Captain Is out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken over the Ship, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1998.

What Matters Most Is How Well You Walk through the Fire, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1999.

Reach for the Sun: Selected Letters, 1978-1994, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1999.

Open All Night: New Poems, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 2000.

The Night Torn Mad with Footsteps: New Poems, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 2001.

Sifting through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way: New Poems, edited by John Martin, Ecco (New York, NY), 2003.

The Flash of Lightning behind the Mountain: New Poems, edited by John Martin, Ecco (New York, NY), 2004.

Slouching toward Nirvana: New Poems, edited by John Martin, Ecco (New York, NY), 2005.

Come on In! New Poems, edited by John Martin, Ecco (New York, NY), 2006.

The People Look like Flowers at Last: New Poems, edited by John Martin, Ecco (New York, NY), 2007.

The Pleasures of the Damned: Poems, 1951-1993, Ecco (New York, NY), 2007.

Author's poems were included in Cameron Jamie, Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, MN), texts by Kathy Halbreich and Philippe Vergne, artwork selected by the artist, 2007.

NOVELS

Post Office, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1971.

Factotum, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1975.

Women, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1978.

Ham on Rye, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1982, reprinted with an introduction by Roddy Doyle, Canongate (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2001.

Horsemeat, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1982.

Hollywood, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1989.

Pulp, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1994.

SHORT STORIES

Notes of a Dirty Old Man, Essex House (North Hollywood, CA), 1969, 2nd edition, 1973.

Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions, and General Tales of Ordinary Madness, City Lights (San Francisco, CA), 1972, abridged edition published as Life and Death in the Charity Ward, London Magazine Editions (London, England), 1974, selections edited by Gail Ghiarello published as Tales of Ordinary Madness and The Most Beautiful Woman in Town, and Other Stories, two volumes, City Lights (San Francisco, CA), 1983.

South of No North: Stories of the Buried Life, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1973.

Bring Me Your Love, illustrated by R. Crumb, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1983.

Hot Water Music, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1983.

There's No Business, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1984.

OTHER

Confessions of a Man Insane Enough to Live with Beasts, Mimeo Press (Bensenville, IL), 1966.

All the Assholes in the World and Mine, Open Skull Press (Bensenville, IL), 1966.

A Bukowski Sampler, edited by Douglas Blazek, Quixote Press, 1969.

(Compiler, with Neeli Cherry and Paul Vangelisti) Anthology of L.A. Poets, Laugh Literary, 1972.

Art, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1977.

What They Want, Neville, 1977.

We'll Take Them, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1978.

You Kissed Lilly, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1978.

Shakespeare Never Did This, City Lights (San Francisco, CA), 1979.

(With Al Purdy) The Bukowski/Purdy Letters: A Decade of Dialogue, 1964-1974, edited by Seamus Cooney, Paget Press (Ontario, Canada), 1983.

Under the Influence: A Charles Bukowski Checklist, Water Row Press (Sudbury, MA), 1984.

You Get So Alone at Times That It Just Makes Sense, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1986.

(Author of preface) Jack Micheline, River of Red Wine, Water Row Press (Sudbury, MA), 1986.

Barfly (screenplay based on Bukowski's life), Cannon Group, 1987, published as The Movie "Barfly": An Original Screenplay by Charles Bukowski for a Film by Barbet Schroeder, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1987.

A Visitor Complains of My Disenfranchise, limited edition, Illuminati, 1987.

Bukowski at Bellevue (video cassette of poetry reading; broadcast on EZTV, West Hollywood, CA, 1988), Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1988.

Septuagenarian Stew: Stories and Poems, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1990.

(Author of preface) John Fante, Ask the Dust, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1993.

Run with the Hunted: A Charles Bukowski Reader, edited by John Martin, Harper Collins (New York, NY), 1993.

Screams from the Balcony: Selected Letters, 1960-1970 (autobiography), Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1994.

(Author of foreword) Steve Richmond, Hitler Painted Roses, Sun Dog Press (Northville, MI), 1994.

Confession of a Coward, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1995.

(Editor) Seamus Cooney Living on Luck: Selected Letters, 1960s-1970s, Volume 2, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1995.

Betting on the Muse: Poems & Stories, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1996.

(With Fernada Pivano) Charles Bukowski: Laughing with the Gods (interview), Sun Dog Press (Northville, MI), 2000.

Beerspit Night and Cursing: The Correspondence of Charles Bukowski and Sheri Martinelli, 1960-1967, edited by Steven Moore, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 2001.

Sunlight Here I Am: Interviews and Encounters, 1963-1993, edited by David Stephen Calonne, Sun Dog Press (Northville, MI), 2003.

Also author of the short story "The Copulating Mermaids of Venice, California." Work represented in anthologies, including Penguin Modern Poets 13, 1969, Six Poets, 1979, and Notes from the Underground, edited by John Bryan. Also author of a one-hour documentary film, produced by KCET public television, Los Angeles. A collection of Bukowski's papers is housed at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

ADAPTATIONS:

Stories from Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions, and General Tales of Ordinary Madness were adapted by Marco Ferreri, Sergio Amidei, and Anthony Foutz into the film Tales of Ordinary Madness, Fred Baker, 1983; a film adaptation of Love Is a Dog from Hell was produced in 1988; The Works of Charles Bukowski, based upon more than thirty of his works published by Black Sparrow Press, was staged by California State University in Los Angeles, 1988; Crazy Love, based on The Copulating Mermaids of Venice, California, was filmed in 1989; the film Factotum, based on Bukowski's novel of the same name, was released by IFC films, 2006; The Most Beautiful Woman in Town, and Other Stories, inspired the film The Ballad of Hank and Cass, 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Charles Bukowski was a prolific underground writer who depicted in his poetry and prose the depraved metropolitan environments of the downtrod- den in American society. A cult hero, Bukowski relied on experience, emotion, and imagination in his works, often using direct language and violent and sexual imagery. While some critics found his style offensive, others claimed that Bukowski satirized the machismo attitude through his routine use of sex, alcohol abuse, and violence. "Without trying to make himself look good, much less heroic, Bukowski writes with a nothing-to-lose truthfulness which sets him apart from most other ‘autobiographical’ novelists and poets," commented Stephen Kessler in the San Francisco Review of Books, adding: "Firmly in the American tradition of the maverick, Bukowski writes with no apologies from the frayed edge of society, beyond or beneath respectability, revealing nasty and alarming underviews."

Born in Germany, Bukowski was brought to the United States at the age of two. His father believed in firm discipline and often beat Bukowski for the smallest offenses. A slight child, Bukowski was also bullied by boys his own age, and was frequently rejected by girls because of his bad complexion. In 1939, Bukowski began attending Los Angeles City College, dropping out at the beginning of World War II and moving to New York to become a writer. The next few years were spent writing and traveling and collecting numerous rejection slips. By 1946 Bukowski had decided to give up his writing aspirations, and what followed was a binge that took him all over the world and lasted for approximately ten years. Ending up near death, Bukowski's life changed and he started writing again. "If a writer must sample life at its most elemental, then surely Bukowski qualifies as a laureate of poetic preparedness," observed a contributor to the Dictionary of Literary Biography; Bukowski's many jobs over the years included stock boy, dishwasher, postal clerk, and factory worker. He did not begin his professional writing career until the age of thirty-five, and like other contemporaries, Bukowski began by publishing in underground newspapers, especially in his local papers, Open City and the L.A. Free Press. "It is tempting to make correlations between [Bukowski's] emergence in Los Angeles literary circles and the arrival of the 1960s, when poets were still shaking hands with Allen Ginsberg and other poets of his generation while younger activist poets tapped on their shoulders, begging for an introduction," explained the contributor to the Dictionary of Literary Biography. "Bukowski cultivated his obvious link to both eras—the blackness and despair of the 1950s with the rebellious cry of the 1960s for freedom."

"Published by small, underground presses and ephemeral mimeographed little magazines," stated a contributor to Contemporary Novelists, "Bukowski has gained popularity, in a sense, through word of mouth." Many of his fans regarded him as one of the best of the Meat School poets, who are known for their tough and direct masculine writing.

After his first book of poetry was published in 1959, Bukowski wrote more than forty others. Flower, Fist, and Bestial Wail, Bukowski's first book of poetry, covers the major interests and themes that occupy many of his works, the most important being a sense of desolation. In addition, Bukowski also filled his free verse with all the absurdities of life, especially in relation to death. Among the subjects which are used to describe this bleak world are drinking, sex, gambling, and music. It Catches My Heart in Its Hands: New and Selected Poems, 1955-1963, published in 1963, collects poetry written by Bukowski between the years of 1955 and 1963. The poems touch on topics that were familiar to Bukowski, such as rerolling cigarette butts, the horse that came in, a hundred-dollar call girl, and a rumpled hitchhiker on his way to nowhere.

Subsequent works, such as Dangling in the Tournefortia, addressed subjects similar to those in his first collection. "Low-life bard of Los Angeles, Mr. Bukowski has nothing new for us here," observed Peter Schjeldahl in the New York Times Book Review, "simply more and still more accounts in free verse of his follies with alcohol and women and of fellow losers hitting bottom and somehow discovering new ways to continue falling." Despite the subject matter, though, Schjeldahl found himself enjoying the poems in Dangling in the Tournefortia. "Bukowski writes well," he continued, "with ear-pleasing cadences, wit and perfect clarity, which are all the more beguiling for issuing from a stumblebum persona. His grace with words gives a comic gleam to even his meanest revelations." A contributor to the Times Literary Supplement, noted: "Life here has almost entirely mastered art."

Similar to his poetry in subject matter, Bukowski's short stories also deal with sex, violence, and the absurdities of life. His first collection of short stories, Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions, and General Tales of Ordinary Madness, was followed by Hot Water Music, published in 1983. The protagonists in the stories live in cheap hotels and are often struggling underground writers, similar to Bukowski himself. Bukowski's main autobiographical figure is Henry Chinaski, who appears in a few of these stories and in many of his novels.

Among the semiautobiographical stories in this collection are two that deal with events following the funeral of Bukowski's father. The other stories deal with numerous violent acts, including a jealous wife shooting her husband over an old infidelity, a drunk bank manager molesting young children, a former stripper mutilating the man she is seducing, and a young man who gets over his impotence by raping a neighbor in his apartment elevator. "Lives of quiet desperation explode in apparently random and unmotivated acts of bizarre violence," described Michael F. Harper in the Los Angeles Times Book Review, adding: "There is certainly a raw power in these stories, but Bukowski's hard-boiled fatalism seems to me the flip side of the humanism he denies and therefore just as false as the sentimentality he ridicules."

Bukowski continued his examination of "broken people" in such novels as Post Office and Ham on Rye. In Post Office, Henry Chinaski is very similar to ex-postman Bukowski; he is a remorseless drunk and womanizer who spends a lot of time at the race track. Chinaski also has to deal with his monotonous and strenuous job, as well as a number of harassing supervisors. Eventually marrying a rich nymphomaniac from Texas, Chinaski is inevitably dumped for another man and finds himself back at the post office. Writing in the Times Literary Supplement, a reviewer saw the novel as a success: "Pressed in by Post Office bureaucrats, their mean-minded regulations and their heaps of paperwork, the misfit [Chinaski] looks frequently like an angel of light. His refusal to play respectability ball with the cajoling, abusive, never-take-no-for-an-answer loops who own the mailboxes he attends … can make even this ribald mess of a wretch seem a shining haven of sanity in the prevailing Los Angeles grimnesses."

Ham on Rye, published in 1982, features Henry Chinaski as its protagonist. Bukowski travels into new territory with this novel, describing his/Chinaski's childhood and adolescent years. The first part of the book is dominated by Chinaski's brutal and domineering father, focusing more on Henry as he moves into his lonely and isolated adolescent years. Following high school, Chinaski holds a job and attends college for a short period of time before beginning his "real" life of cheap hotels, sleazy bars, and the track. It is also at this time that Henry starts to send stories to magazines and accumulate a number of rejection slips. "Particularly striking is Bukowski's uncharacteristic restraint: the prose is hard and exact, the writer's impulse towards egocentricity repressed," commented a contributor to the Times Literary Supplement. A Los Angeles Times Book Review contributor described the "first-person reminiscences" in Ham on Rye as being "taut, vivid, intense, sometimes poignant, [and] often hilarious," concluding that Bukowski's "prose has never been more vigorous or more powerful."

Continuing the examination of his younger years, Bukowski wrote the screenplay for the movie Barfly, which was released in 1987, starring Mickey Rourke. The movie focuses on three days in the life of Bukowski at the age of twenty-four. As the lead character, Henry Chinaski, Rourke spends most of these three days in a seedy bar, where he meets the first real love of his life, Wanda, played by Faye Dunaway. While this new romance is developing, a beautiful literary editor takes an interest in Chinaski's writings and tries to seduce him with success. Chinaski must then choose between the two women. "At first Barfly seems merely a slice of particularly wretched life," observed David Ansen in Newsweek. "But under its seedy surface emerges a cunning comedy—and a touching love story."

Bukowski's experiences with the making of Barfly became the basis of his novel Hollywood. Chinaski is now an old man, married to Sarah, a shrewd woman apt to interrupt him during his many repetitious stories. The couple is off hard liquor, but are faithful drinkers of good red wine, and their life is a peaceful one until a filmmaker asks Chinaski to write a screenplay based upon his previous lifestyle; he agrees, figuring that this new venture will leave him enough time to spend at the track. Entering the world of show business, Chinaski finds himself mingling with famous stars, but must also deal with a number of other things, including a tax man (who advises him to spend his advance money before the government can get it). As the project progresses, its funding becomes shaky, the producer threatens to dismember parts of his body if the movie is not made, there are many rewrites, and Chinaski is hit with a terrible sadness. The movie is about what he used to be—a poetic barfly—and covers a time in his life when he feels he did his best writing. An old man now, Chinaski can watch his life being acted out at the movies, but he cannot jump back into it; he is now a successful man leading a respectable life. "The words often jar and Bukowski is better when he lets his dialogue do his griping for him. But this is still a superb snapshot of what filmmaking at the fag-end of the Hollywood dream is all about," wrote a contributor to the Times Literary Supplement.

Pulp, published posthumously, is the novel Bukowski worked on just prior to his death in 1994 from leukemia. It is a send-up, Bukowski-style, of the pulp detective novel. His protagonist, not surprisingly a Bukowski-like character, is Nicky Belane, who sometimes wonders if he is Harry Martel. Like any good pulp detective, Belane has a series of clients, including Lady Death (looking for Celine, who has been spotted in L.A. bookstores), John Barton (looking for the Red Sparrow, which is a play on Bukowski's publisher John Martin of Black Sparrow Press), and a host of others, whose stories come together in the final pages. A contributor to the New York Times Book Review wrote: "It does not, of course, take much to send up the hard-boiled detective novel." The reviewer went on to write: "The conventions … seem to mock themselves, if you stand back a bit. But Pulp does more than stand back from itself." Daniel Woodreli, writing in Washington Post Book World, also found Bukowski's reworking of a time-honored form refreshing: "The hard-boiled form as a framework is nicely utilized, with snappy dialogue that is always off-center, and oddly very honest." He continued, "[Bukowski] treats it with a kind of poignant ridicule that somehow works. Pulp is comic and bizarre and sad without a trace of self-pity." A New York Times Book Review contributor found deeper significance in the novel beyond its form, stating that "as parody, Pulp does not cut very deep. As a farewell to readers, as a gesture of rapprochement with death, as Bukowski's send-up and send-off of himself, this bio-parable cuts as deep as you would want."

Run with the Hunted: A Charles Bukowski Reader is an anthology of Bukowski's stories and poetry, placed chronologically in the periods in which they were set (not published). It provides a solid overview of Bukowski's work and—given its autobiographical nature—his life. It is "an effective primer for the uninitiated, or a refresher for past readers who, incredibly, have managed to forget," commented a Publishers Weekly contributor. Elizabeth Young in New Statesman & Society at once lauded and criticized the anthology, noting: "From the vast vat of Bukowski homebrew, John Martin has distilled a cut-glass decanter of 100-proof literary perfection." The reviewer continued: "[He] has done Bukowski a great service—and a sort of disservice too. After such a brilliantly constructed anthology, who is going to read all the books?" Bukowski's previously unpublished work, introduced posthumously by Black Sparrow Press in Betting on the Muse: Poems & Stories, shows him to have continued in the same vein with the character Henry Chinaski, as well as with the verse that made him, according to a Publishers Weekly contributor, the "original take-no-prisoners poet." Ray Olson, writing for Booklist, found his stories and poems to be "effortlessly, magnetically readable, especially if you are susceptible to their bargain-basement existentialist charm."

Bukowski's life via his letters is chronicled in Screams from the Balcony: Selected Letters, 1960-1970. "The honesty, humor and lack of pretension in these letters make them a must for Bukowski fans and an engaging read for anyone interested in literary lives," wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor. Benjamin Segedin in Booklist wrote that occasional readers and fans alike would find Bukowski "perversely intriguing, attracting the kind of attention one usually reserves for grisly train wrecks." Screams from the Balcony was followed by Reach for the Sun: Selected Letters, 1978-1994, which covered the last years of the poet's life. In letters to his publishers, editors, friends, and fellow poets, Bukowski railed against critics, praised the writers who first inspired him, and wrote a great deal about three of his favorite subjects: drinking, women, and the racetrack. "Above all, however, they reveal a man dedicated to his craft," noted William Gargan in Library Journal.

Still more new work was published posthumously with the poetry collections What Matters Most Is How Well You Walk through the Fire and Open All Night: New Poems. Reviewing the former, Booklist contributor Ray Olson maintained: "If Bukowski's stuff appeals to you at all, [What Matters Most] should be gratifying as all get-out." Open All Night was judged somewhat less than the poet's best work by Olson in another Booklist article, but while he noted that "there are better books for one's first taste of Bukowski," he added that "this one will do fine for connoisseurs." A Publishers Weekly contributor commented: "Nobody will be converted to Bukowski by these verses, but that's hardly the point: like William Burroughs or Jim Morrison, Bukowski in death retains the tenacious (and mostly youthful) fan base he gathered in life."

An intimate look into Bukowski's last days is provided by The Captain Is out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken over the Ship, a collection of journal entries from the poet's last years. It begins with his usual celebrations and ruminations on gambling, women, and drinking, but takes on "tragic overtones" as the writer comes to terms with his diagnosis of leukemia, reported Gerald Locklin in Review of Contemporary Fiction. "These reflections approaching endgame reveal the complex humanity of a too-often caricatured figure who beat seemingly prohibitive odds to achieve the destiny he came to embrace as a world-class writer of uncompromising novels, stories, and poems." Booklist contributor Mike Tribby also recommended The Captain Is out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken over the Ship as a fine portrait of the "cranky, sardonic, insightful master of gritty expression whose roaring public appearances of the '60s triggered the rebirth of poetry as performance."

Years after Bukowski's death, both new and previously published works continue to be published. As noted by Dwight Garner in the New York Times: "He left a ton of work behind—so much that his publisher, Ecco, has been issuing annual collections of new Bukowski poems for some time now, and will keep going." Sifting through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way: New Poems, published in 2003, is the first of five Ecco publications of Bukowski's poems, most of them previously unpublished. "This volume is essential for Bukowski fans and an excellent introduction for new readers," wrote Rochelle Ratner in Library Journal. George Economou, writing in World Literature Today, noted that the collection provides "certain familiar enjoyments in its recapitulation of the signature features that made reading Bukowski fun in the first place."

The next collection published by Ecco, The Flash of Lightning behind the Mountain: New Poems, contains many of the author's later poems. "This is mellow Buk," wrote Ray Olson in Booklist. In a review of Slouching toward Nirvana: New Poems Booklist contributor Olson called it "one of his best collections."

Bukowski's posthumous poetry collections continue to receive praise from reviewers. A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote of The People Look like Flowers at Last: New Poems: "Fans … may discover one of his strongest, most affecting books." Another collection, Come on In! New Poems, "is full of sad, hilarious lamentation," according to Booklist contributor Olson. The Pleasures of the Damned: Poems, 1951-1993, published in 2007, has been touted as the last book containing any of Bukowski's unpublished poems. A Publishers Weekly contributor noted the author's "ironic takes on ailments of mind and body."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Brewer, Gay, Charles Bukowski, Twayne (New York, NY), 1997.

Cherkovski, Neeli, Bukowski: A Life, Steerforth Press (South Royalton, VT), 1997.

Christy, Jim, The Buk Book: Musings on Charles Bukowski, ECW Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1997.

Contemporary Literary Criticism, Gale (Detroit, MI), Volume 2, 1974, Volume 5, 1976, Volume 9, 1978, Volume 41, 1987, Volume 82, 1994.

Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 5: American Poets since World War II, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1980.

Dorbin, Sanford, A Bibliography of Charles Bukowski, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1969.

Duval, Jean-François, Bukowski and the Beats, translated from the French by Alison Ardron, followed by An Evening at Buk's Place: An Interview with Charles Bukowski, Sun Dog Press (Northville, MI), 2002.

Fox, Hugh, Charles Bukowski: A Critical and Bibliographical Study, Abyss Publications (Somerville, MA), 1969.

Harrison, Russell, Against the American Dream: Essays on Charles Bukowski, Black Sparrow Press (Santa Rosa, CA), 1994.

Kirkpatrick, D.L., editor, Contemporary Novelists, 4th edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1986.

Miles, Barry, Charles Bukowski, Virgin Books (London, England), 2006.

Richmond, Steve, Spinning off Bukowski, Sun Dog Press (Northville, MI), 1996.

Sherman, Jory, Bukowski: Friendship, Fame, and Bestial Myth, Blue Horse Press (Augusta, GA), 1982.

Sounes, Howard, Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life, Grove Press (New York, NY), 1998.

Weinberg, Jeffrey, editor, A Charles Bukowski Checklist, Water Row Press, 1987.

PERIODICALS

America's Intelligence Wire, August 18, 2006, "‘Factotum’ Turns a Lens on Charles Bukowski's Dark Life."

Baltimore Sun, September 8, 2006, "‘Factotum’ Is a Bleak Portrait of Boozy Bukowski."

Booklist, February 15, 1993, Jules Smith, review of The Last Night of the Earth Poems, p. 1010; January 15, 1994, Benjamin Segedin, review of Screams from the Balcony: Selected Letters, 1960-1970, p. 893; May 15, 1996, review of Betting on the Muse: Poems & Stories, p. 1563; May 15, 1998, Mike Tribby, review of The Captain Is out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken over the Ship, p. 1587; December 15, 1999, Ray Olson, review of What Matters Most Is How Well You Walk through the Fire, p. 752; December 1, 2000, Ray Olson, review of Open All Night: New Poems, p. 689; November 15, 2001, Ray Olson, review of The Night Torn Mad with Footsteps, p. 542; January 1, 2003, Ray Olson, review of Sifting through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way: New Poems, p. 836; December 1, 2003, Ray Olson, review of The Flash of Lightning behind the Mountain: New Poems, p. 635; January 1, 2005, Ray Olson, review of Slouching toward Nirvana: New Poems, p. 803; December 1, 2005, Ray Olson, review of Come on In! New Poems, p. 15; March 15, 2007, Ray Olson, review of The People Look like Flowers at Last, p. 15; November 1, 2007, Ray Olson, review of The Pleasures of the Damned: Poems, 1951-1993, p. 14.

Bookwatch, July, 1998, review of The Captain Is out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken over the Ship, p. 1.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, November, 2002, L. Berk, review of Bukowski and the Beats: A Commentary on the Beat Generation; Followed by an Evening at Buk's Place—an Interview with Charles Bukowski, p. 468.

Christian Science Monitor, April 24, 2003, review of Sifting through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way, p. 17; August 18, 2006, "A Beat Movie That's off the Beat; ‘Factotum,’ Starring Matt Dillon, Is Based on the Book by Charles Bukowski," p. 16.

Daily Variety, January 29, 2003, Dana Harris, "Magnolia Gets Bukowski Doc," p. 12.

Entertainment Weekly, March 25, 1994, reviews of Post Office and Screams from the Balcony, p. 49.

Hollywood Reporter, January 28, 2003, "Magnolia Blooms with ‘Bukowski’ Docu.," p. 8; August 18, 2006, "West Hollywood's Falcon Nightclub Might Have Been Too Trendy for Down-and-out ‘Factotum’ Author Charles Bukowski," p. 63.

Kliatt, January, 1998, review of Bone Palace Ballet: New Poems, p. 21.

Library Journal, July, 1999, William Gargan, review of Reach for the Sun: Selected Letters, 1978-1994, p. 89; January, 2003, Rochelle Ratner, review of Sifting through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way, p. 114.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, October 3, 1982, review of Dangling in The Tournefortia, p. 6; August 28, 1983, Jonathan Kirsch, review of Bring Me Your Love and Ham on Rye, p. 6; December 11, 1983, Michael F. Harper, review of Hot Water Music, and Bring Me Your Love, p. 2; March 17, 1985, Kenneth Funsten, review of War All the Time: Poems 1981-1984, p. 4, review of The Bukowski/Purdy Letters: A Decade of Dialogue, 1964-1974, p. 8; October 30, 1994, review of Pulp, p. 11.

New Statesman & Society, June 17, 1994, Elizabeth Young, review of Pulp, p. 37.

Newsweek, October 26, 1987, David Ansen, review of Barfly, p. 86.

New York, June 4, 2007, Jocelyn Guest, "Strokes Guitarist Writes Too: Semi-authorized Bukowski," p. 9.

New York Times, June 4, 2004, Stephen Holden, "A Poet Weaned on Pain and Reared by Adversity," p. 14; June 6, 2004, Dwight Garner, "Dead Poet's Insobriety," p. 13.

New York Review of Books, October 5, 1972, review of Mockingbird, Wish Me Luck, pp. 21-23.

New York Times Book Review, January 17, 1982, Peter Schjeldahl, review of Dangling in the Tournefortia, pp. 13, 16; June 11, 1989, review of Hollywood, p. 11; November 25, 1990, Jules Smith, review of Septuagenarian Stew: Stories and Poems, p. 19; June 5, 1994, review of Pulp, p. 50; December 26, 1999, review of What Matters Most Is How Well You Walk through the Fire, p. 16; January 7, 2001, Kera Bolonik, review of Open All Night, p. 18.

Publishers Weekly, March 29, 1993, review of Run with the Hunted: A Charles Bukowski Reader, p. 34; December 20, 1993, review of Screams from the Balcony, p. 62; April 29, 1996, review of Hollywood, p. 66; April 20, 1998, review of The Captain Is out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken over the Ship, p. 60; December 6, 1999, review of What Matters Most Is How Well You Walk through the Fire, p. 74; November 20, 2000, review of Open All Night, p. 65; May 28, 2001, review of Beerspit Night and Cursing: The Correspondence of Charles Bukowski and Sheri Martinelli, 1960-1967, p. 63; November 19, 2001, review of The Night Torn Mad with Footsteps, p. 64; December 22, 2003, review of The Flash of Lightning behind the Mountain, p. 55; October 24, 2005, review of Come on In!, p. 40; April 16, 2007, review of The People Look like Flowers at Last, p. 33; October 15, 2007, review of The Pleasures of the Damned, p. 42.

Reviewer's Bookwatch, October, 2004, Jim Sullivan, review of The Flash of Lightning behind the Mountain.

Review of Contemporary Fiction, fall, 1985, pp. 56-59; fall, 1998, Gerald Locklin, review of The Captain Is out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken over the Ship, p. 237; May 28, 2001, review of Beerspit Night and Cursing, p. 63; November 19, 2001, review of The Night Torn Mad with Footsteps, p. 64; December 22, 2003, review of The Flash of Lightning behind the Mountain, p. 55; October 24, 2005, review of Come on In!, p. 40; April 16, 2007, review of The People Look like Flowers at Last, p. 33; October 15, 2007, review of The Pleasures of the Damned, p. 42.

San Francisco Review of Books, January-February, 1983, Stephen Kessler, review of Ham on Rye, p. 11.

Spectator, November 30, 1974, Peter Ackroyd, review of Life and Death in the Charity Ward, p. 711.

Times Literary Supplement, April 5, 1974, review of Post Office, p. 375; June 20, 1980, review of Play the Piano Drunk like a Percussion Instrument until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit, p. 706; September 4, 1981, Susan Shafarzek, "Shakespeare Never Did This," p. 1000; November 12, 1982, review of Ham on Rye, p. 1251; December 3, 1982, review of Dangling in the Tournefortia, p. 1344; May 4, 1984, review of The Bukowski/Purdy Letters, p. 486; August 11, 1989, review of Hollywood, p. 877; September 7, 1990, Lawrence Rungren, review of Septuagenarian Stew, p. 956.

UPI Perspectives, May 28, 2004, Pat Nason, "Feature: Bukowski Caught on Film."

Village Voice, March 23, 1982, Peter Schjeldahl, review of Dangling in the Tournefortia, p. 42.

W, August, 2006, Kevin West, "Skip It," review of film Factorum, p. 168.

Washington Post Book World, July 14, 1994, Daniel Woodreli, review of Pulp, p. 2.

World Entertainment News Network, August 27, 2006, "Dillon Uncovers the Truth about Bukowski from Ex-wife"; June 1, 2007, "Hammond Jr. to Write Bukowski Screenplay."

World Literature Today, September-December, 2004, George Economou, review of Sifting through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way, p. 97.